sanctifying these waters a new and heavenly off-spring may hence arise full of health and light that humane nature which was made after thy own image being reformed and restored to the honour of its first beginning may be cleansed from all the impure adherencies of sin preserved from the Dominion of it and rescued from all its sad effects that what shall be so born in the wombe of the Church may dwell in the house of God and Reign with thee for ever in the inheritance of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen II. OUR Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus who was baptized of John in Jordan who walked upon the waters who converted water into wine who out of his precious side shed forth bloud and water the two Sacraments of life unto his holy Church and commanded his disciples to teach all nations baptizing them with water in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost he blesse and sanctifie by his holy Spirit this water that it may be instrumental and effective of grace of pardon and sanctification Hear us O most gracious God that whoever shall be baptized in this water may be renewed by thy grace justified by thy mercy sanctified by thy Spirit preserved by thy providence and guided by thy word that in this water springing from the Paradise of God the Soul or Souls presented unto thee may be cleansed and purified and that there may be added to thy Church daily such as shall be saved in the day of thy glorious appearing O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Then the Minister and People arising from their knees the following Gospel shall be read Hear the words of the holy Gospel written by S. Matthew in the third chapter c. Verse 13. to verse 17. inclusively THen cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him * But John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and commest thou to me And Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now for thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousness Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptised went up straitway out of the water and loe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him * And loe a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear likewise what S. Mark writeth in his tenth chapter Verse 13. 17. exclusively THE Jews brought children to Christ that he should touch them and his Disciples rebuked those that brought them * But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased and said unto them Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdome of God Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdome of God as a little child he shall not enter therein * And he took them up in his armes put his hands upon them and blessed them FRiends in these Gospels you see the actions and hear the words of our Blessed Saviour how he commanded little children to be brought unto him how he rebuked those that would have kept them away how readily he blessed them how kindly he embraced them how he pronounced them capable of and entitled to the kingdome of God how he commanded us to receive the kingdome as infants received it and affirmed that we can no way receive it but by being like them you know also that although Christ commanded them to be brought unto him there is no ordinary and appointed way for Infants to come to Christ and no way poâ—â—â—ble for them to be brought to Christ but by this new birth and regeneration in the laver of Baptisme you see also by the example and words of our Blessed Lord himself that even the most innocent persons ought to be baptized For he himself who knew no sin was yet baptized in the Baptisme of Repentance and so to doe was the fulfilling of righteousness we may therefore easily perceive that the innocence of infants and their freedom from actual sin cannot excuse them from Baptisme and if we remember that although our Blessed Saviour required faith of them who came to be healed of their diseases yet by the * faith of others who came in behalf of such as could not be brought or could not come the sick person was healed we are sufficiently instructed that although Infants have no more actual faith then they have actual sin yet the faith of others can be is by the usual and revealed method of the divine mercy as well imputed to them to the purposes of grace and life as the sin of Adam can be imputed to the purposes of death that as in Adam all die so in Christ all should be made alive we may therefore from these certain evidences conclude that God alloweth in you this obedience and charity in bringing this child to Christ to receive all blessings of which he is capable a title to the promises and adoption to be the child of God a sanctification by the spirit a designation to the service of Christ and putting him into the order of eternal life Therefore as circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of faith and yet minâ—stred to infants eight daies old and commanded so severely that God said the uncircumcised child whole flesh is not circumcisedâ— that soul shall be cut off from his people so Baptisme which is now the seal of the same faith and the same righteousness and a figure like unto the former is to be administred to infants although they have no more actual faith then the children of the Israelites had our Blessed Saviour having made Baptisme as necessary in the new Testament as Circumcision in the Old For because little children can receive the kingdome of God and in infants there is no incapacity of receiving the mercies of God the adoption to be children of God a title to the promises the covenant of repentance and a right to pardon whosoever shall deny to baptize infants when he is justly required is sacrilegious and uncharitable Since therefore the Church of God hath so great so cleer so indubitable a warrant to baptize infants and therefore did alwaies practice it let us humbly and charitably give thanks to God for his great mercies unto us all and with meekness and love recommend this child to the grace of God Let us pray O Almighty and eternal God who hast redeemed us from sin and shame from the gates of hell and the sting of death and from ignorance and darkness by thy holy Son who is that light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world we praise and glorifie thy name that thou hast called us to the knowledge of thy will and the love of thy name and the service of thy majesty which is perfect freedome the freedome of the sons of God II. As thou hast
food and raiment the light of thy countenance and contented spirits and thy grace to seeke the Kingdom of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof in the first place and then we are sure all these things shall be added unto us Grant the desires and heare the prayer of thy servants for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely saviour Amen Or this upon the same occasion or in the time of any other judgement ALmighty Father Lord of Heaven Earth we have sinned and thou hast smitten us al our evils that we suffer are drawne upon our heads by our owne impious hands let thy threatnings and thy judgments thy love and thy feare thy promises and thy precepts worke in thy servants an excellent repentance and let our repentance obtaine thy favour and thy favour remove the present evil of Drowth of immoderate raine of Murren of Plague of Warre of Sicknesse from us according to the present occasion sanctify unto us thy rod and support us with thy staffe and restore us to those comforts which we need and which thou hast promised to give to them that love and feare thee that repent of their sins and beg for pardon through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen A shorter forme of Morning prayer for a Family A more private office for the family to be said betimes in the Morning on Sundaies or at any houre of the morning upon the other daies of the weeke In the name of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Our Father c. The morning Hymne * HEarken unto the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray ¶ My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will looke up * Great is our Lord and greatly to be praised his eyes are ever upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry ¶ Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds * Thy righteousnesse is like the great mountaines thy judgements are a great deep O Lord thou preservest both man and beast ¶ How excellent is thy loving-kindnesse O Lord therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings * For with thee is the fountaine of life in thy light we shall see light ¶ According to thy name O God so is thy praise to the ends of the earth thy right hand is full of righteousnesse * The Lord the Lord God is mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty ¶ What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him * And that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment ¶ If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication to the Almighty * If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous ¶ O Lord be gracious unto us we have waited for thee be thou our arme every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble * O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy hill unto thy dwelling ¶ O put your trust in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption he shall redeem his people from their sins * Then shall their light breake forth as the morning and their health shall spring forth speedily for the glory of the Lord shall be their reward Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end If there be time and conveniency let a chapter be read out of the Sapiential bookes in order viz. The proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes the Wisedome of Solomon Ecclesiasticus Then shall follow the Creed To be said by all together I Beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth * And in Jesus Christ his onely son our Lord * which was conceived by the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary * suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried* He descended into hell * The third day he rose againe from the dead * He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty * From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead * I believe in the holy Ghost * The holy Catholick Church the communion of Saints * the forgivenesse of sins * the resurrection of the body * and the life everlasting Amen Minister The Lord be with you People And with thy spirit I. Let us pray O Eternall and most blessed Saviour Jesus thou art the bright morning star and the sun of righteousnesse thou dost enlighten our eyes with thy beauties and our hearts with thy comfort and with the joyes of God thou art the fountaine of health and life of peace and truth of rest and holinesse thou givest to them that want thou comfortest them that suffer thou forgivest them that repent and hearest the prayers of all them that call upon thee we adore thee and praise thy glories and rejoyce in thy salvation and give thee thanks for thy blessing and defending us this night from all the evill which we have deserved every day and from all the violences and snares by which the enemie of mankind would have hurt us or destroyed us unlesse he had been restrained by thy eternall goodnesse and thy almighty power Blessed be God II. We acknowledge O God and Father of our life that we are lesse then the least of all thy mercies and our iniquity is greater then we can bear our thoughts are vaine our words are foolish and uselesse injurious and uncharitable our actions criminall and hatefull our devotion cold our passions violent and unreasonable our duties imperfect our repentance little our holinesse none at all O God our Judge we confesse before thee that we neither know thee as we ought nor have taken care that we might we live in the world to our selves but without just regards of thee and of religion we daily receive thy blessings and yet we provoke thee every day we tremble not at thy judgements though we have deserved them nor fear till the evil day comes upon us we are greedy of doing evill but impatient of suffering any in prosperity we forget thy severity and justice in afflictions we are timorous and amazed dare not relie upon thy goodnesse nor with confidence and love expect the effects of thy mercies and forgivenesse Every thing can tempt us to sin and we fall infallibly but by all the arts of thy Spirit and the methods of thy mercy we are not brought to obey thee as we ought Our state is sad our condition is sinfull our hopes are broken and we
sinke not O let me be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deepe waters * Let not the water-flood drowne me neither let the deep swallow me up and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me ¶ Heare me O Lord for thy loving kindnesse is comfortable turne thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies * Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders ¶ O hide not thy face from thy servants for we are in trouble O hast and heare us * Our soules are full of trouble and our life draweth nigh unto the grave ¶ O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come O let our prayer enter into thy presence incline thine eare unto our calling Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. If there be time and opportunity to read any portions of scripture suitable to the necessity then read If they be pursued by Pirates Exodus 14. from verse 21. to the 20. verse of the 15. chapter If they be in danger of Shipwrack Read Jonah 1. or Jonah 2. or Acts 27. At other times Read Matthew 8. or Matthew 14. or Marke 4. or Luke 8. The Prayer I. O Almighty God and Father of heaven and earth who settest a bound to the sea and restrainest his waves by a heap of sand by mountaines and by rocks by thy word and by thy Spirit saying hither shall thy proud waves passe and no further looke upon us thy servants whose lives are in our hands and we dwell in the shadowes of death night and day we know O Lord and confesse the floods and waves of passion doe frequently overrun us and we are drown'd in the stormes and overwhelmed with iniquity Our Oaths Blasphemies Impieties Irreligious actions are lowder then the fiercest winds and call aloud upon thee for vengeance and many of us in our greatest danger provoke thee with the greattest unreasonablenesse and violence of impiety But O God our God be gracious unto thy people who accuse our selves and confesse our guilt and acknowledge thy justice and beg thy goodnesse and pray to thee for safety and defence for deliverance and for pardon for thy conduct and thy blessing Keepe us O God from stormes and quicksands from Pirats and Rocks from error and impieties from all evil contingencies and all evil actions let our voyage be safe to our persons and to our goods let it be blessed by thy providence and thy holy Spirit that we may returne with comfort and with advantages of trade or successe and thy servants may glorify thee in the land of the living in the church of the first-borne the congregation of thy redeemed ones through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. In a storme or danger of Pirates or Shipwrack O Eternal and most holy Saviour Jesus who in the daies of thy flesh and thy infirmity didst command the winds and rebuke the seas and they obeyed thee and thou art now exalted farre above all principalities and powers above all heavens and all Angels and art the King of the world and the great Prince of the whole Creation and thou hast commanded us to come boldly to the throne of grace and hast promised we should find help in time of need looke downe upon thy servants who in the abysse of the seas and the abysse of our trouble invocate the abysse of thy mercies speak peace unto our consciences and command our enemies to be in peace with us or to have no power against us rebuke the winds restrain the violent and injurious thou art our refuge be thou therefore our defence and our security and rescue us from the present danger we know O God that the Devil is a great prince and rules in the aire and in the hearts of the children of disobedience but thou art the King Lord over him and all princes of the world thou art the prince of Spirits and restrainest the Spirits of princes let not the enemy of mankind execute his cruel envy against us nor any of the elements nor any of his instruments be able to doe us any violence III. O refuse not to heare the prayers and to consider the cries and to behold and pity the neede of them that call upon thee that put their trust in thee that have laid up all their hopes in thee and thy infinite and eternall goodnesse we have no strengths of our owne but thou art our confidence be thou also our portion and our guide our defence and our shield a star in the night and a covering by day Strengthen our faith O God and increase our hope that in the greatest danger we may against hope beleive in hope and with faith and love expect the salvation of the Lord and may find thy goodnesse rescuing us from this present feare and defending us in all our difficulties and sanctifying every accident and sweetning every event of providence and consigning us bythese blessings to a finall delivery from all our sins and from the evils which our sins deserve to the glory of God to the salvation of our soules in thy day in thy glorious day O Eternal and most holy Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. A forme of prayer and blessing to be used over him that in the beginning of a journey by Land or Sea begs the prayers of the Minister of the Church The Prayer O Almighty God most gracious and most merciful who art a God afar off as well as nigh at hand and hast sent thy Ministring Angels to Minister good to them that shall be heires of salvation be thou pleased to send thy holy Angel before this thy servant N. to defend him from the heat of the day and the cold of the night from the arrow that flies at noone and the evil spirits that walke in darknesse from errors falls from precipices and fracture of bones from pirates and robbers from evil intentions and evil accidents from violent weather and violent feares from all impressions of evil men and evil spirits let this journey be safe and usefull to thy servant comfortable to his relatives holinesse to the Lord and glory to thy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Blessing THe Lord blesse thee and keepe thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee He keepe thee from all evil by the custody of Angels and lead thee into all good by the conduct of his good Spirit Amen Let the providence and love of God be thy defence and thy security his grace be thy portion his service thy imployment He goe in and out before thee and keepe thee in all thy wayes and lead thee in all his He bring thee back againe in peace and safety and prosper all thy innocent and holy purpofes and when the few and evil daies of thy pilgrimage are ended he of